Names for mycobacteria

Abstract

To the founding fathers of bacteriology the nomenclature of pathogens was straightforward. Tuberculosis was caused by the tubercle bacillus and leprosy was caused by the leprosy bacillus and when these pathogens were allocated to the genus Mycobacterium this posed no problem, they merely became M tuberculosis and M leprae. This golden age of simplicity in nomenclature was, however, short lived as it soon became apparent that tubercle bacilli were not all identical and that some tuberculosis-like infections were caused by other mycobacterial species that normally existed as saprophytes in the inanimate environment. In our experience mycobacterial nomenclature is a frequent source of confusion to physicians and the author here attempts to shed some light on this subject.